Article writing

This morning I started setting up the Photoshop Elements trial on my VM. Unfortunately, the drive (partition) that the VM's virtual hard drive was located on ran out of free space during the installation. (The VM has a dynamically expanding VHD).

So I had to move some files from the drive (partition) that the VHD file was located on to make more space. So quite a bit of the morning was spent just waiting for the files to copy and then the binary compare to confirm they had copied OK.

The rest of the morning, and most of the afternoon and evening, I was working on articles for my photo tips website. I managed to complete two and start a third. In the evening I also watched an episode of Mahabharat.

Walking

This morning I was planning to write a couple of articles for my photo tips website. But then McRad asked me if I wanted to go out on a walk with him, so I did that instead.

In the afternoon (and in the morning) it was very hot, so I just went on the internet for a bit, and then started work on one of the articles. I also started setting up a new Windows VM. I use a Windows VM for running Photoshop Elements trial and recording videos of how to do stuff in PSE. Then when the trial runs out I scrap the VM and create a new one. I can't see any point in paying for the full version of PSE when I already have Photoshop proper.

Is Inspector Boglin gobblin' a cob Lynne?

This morning I updated my pog website. Then I started off a binary compare between one of my backups and the original data while I went to Church.

In the afternoon I just went on the internet for a bit while I waited for the binary compare to finish. When it did finish, I saw I had problems with some files that weren't readable.

It was a permissions problem (seems to happen quite a bit in Windows). I changed the owner on the folder, and ticked the box to apply to subfolders and files. Then I changed the permissions, and ticked the box to apply to subfolders and files. But got a read access permission error on the problem files when I clicked OK.

Doing some googling, I found the solution here: Vista - Changing folder permissions recursively. Open dos prompt as administrator, then run icacls "e:\path\to\files" /grant administrators:F /t. I also used to this trick to fix the permissions on a file that windows wouldn't let me delete or change permissions for through the file properties.

In Google Webmaster tools, I saw that I was getting 404s for comments/feed/. I checked, and it was returning a 404. Googling didn't turn up much helpful. Most seemed to have problems with plugins causing it. Then I found this post, which flags it up as a wordpress bug: WordPress Comments Feed 404 Fixed.

Thankfully they provide a solution there (involves hacking the Wordpress core). It would be nice to think that this will be fixed in future Wordpress releases, but I won't be holding my breath.

In the evening I went out to take a few photos.

Baking

With my new hard drive installed okay, data copied, the integrity of the copied data verified, and the data backed up, I could start copying new files to my hard drive today.

Here are some pictures of my new hard drive that I took when I first received it a few days ago:

The new hard drives arrived protected by packets of frankfurter sausages:

The packaging must have been inflated around the hard drive as it was really well wedged in. The only way to remove it was by bursting (deflating) some of the packaging.

I thought that maybe removing this stopper would deflate the packaging, but it was actually a hollow stopper. (And so made no difference when removed).

I'm not sure what the purpose of the statement on this sticker is. Maybe for customs purposes, but that seems unlikely. The drive itself also states on the sticker it was made in Thailand.

The controller board for the drive does not reach all the way across the width of the drive. Also unlike my other drives, there is no foam placed between the PCB and the drive case - there is a clear gap between the PCB and case.

The Seagate 3TB drive compared to the WD 1.5TB drive it was replacing. The Seagate drive is upside down compared to the WD drive.

This is the underside of the Seagate 3TB drive compared to the WD 1.5TB drive it was replacing. (Both the same way up for this shot).

And here's a photo of how happy the Tesco decaf coffee jar was after I removed its lid:

Well, I wish I could plan my time better, as although I had full use of my computer available today, I spent much of the day not using the computer. I had some washing to sort out and also did some cooking. Would have been much more efficient if I had thought of doing those jobs yesterday when the computer was busy.

Copying, Verifying, Backing up

Today I was still verifying the data copied to my new hard drive.

In the morning, while I was waiting, I had a look at UV photography again. One of the things it seems you really need for photographing flowers in UV is a UV flash.

I found some instructions for modifying the Vivitar 285HV/285/283 flash and also for modifying the Nikon SB-14 for UV photography. However, both articles seemed to suggest that you need a UV filter for the flash, which seems like it would be difficult / expensive to find.

Another flash I found is the Quantum Q flash, which has a UV/IR Wave reflector adapter available. From the looks of it, the adapter screws on to the front of the flash, then you'd need to screw in your own 67mm UV pass filter. So again, you need to find an expensive UV pass filter.

The Quantum Q flash is also very expensive new, though older models can be had on ebay for around £150.

Lastly I found the MR ® 21 UV flash Canon (Item 21L). On it's PDF description page it says that it is also available for other cameras. So I sent them an email to try and get more info on it.

I would hope that ultimately, having a UV flash is not necessary. So long as the flash outputs UV light, and you are using a filter on the camera that blocks visible and IR light, then I don't see why you would need the flash to output only UV?

Well, I think that I finally finished sorting out the new hard drive, getting everything copied, verifying the data copied okay, and backing it up. So tomorrow I can actually get some work done instead of just going on the internet.

Copying and verifying

Today both my new hard drives were working okay and recognised as 3TB drives (don't ask me how), so I copied over the contents of one of my 1.5TB drives to the 3TB drive that is replacing it. Then I backed up the 3TB drive to the other 3TB drive.

And currently I am running a binary compare between the contents of the 3TB drive and the 1.5TB drive that I copied to it.

Doing the copying and comparing has taken all day. It is annoying because I don't want to do any work that pushes the computer while it is doing this, in case it causes a problem.

While the copying and checking has been going on, I also made some fruit buns, and went out for a short walk in the evening.

I still have to compare the 3TB drive to the two 1.5TB drive backups. That will probably take 10-12 hours. Then I need to compare the other data on the 3TB drive to the other drive and backups that was copied off. I guess that will take 3-6 hours. Then I need to compare the 3TB drive to the 3TB drive backup. That will probably take about 6-7 hours. Then one of the 1.5TB drives needs to be formatted and have the other data backed up to it. That will take 1-2 hours.

So upgrading to a larger hard drive takes a very long time for me. But it does mean that I have two backups, and can be sure of the data integrity on the new drive and the backups.

Annoying computer is too old

This morning and the first part of the afternoon I was working on an article for my photo tips website.

After that I went shopping. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon and some of the evening trying to get my new hard drives that arrived today to work. The problem seems to be with the Intel chipset firmware on my motherboard, unfortunately you don't seem to be able to upgrade this yourself. The motherboard manufacturer has to include it as part of a BIOS update. But my motherboard is probably 5 or 6 years old now, and there aren't any BIOS updates that include the latest Intel RAID firmware.

In the evening I also went out for a bit to try and take some photos to illustrate another article for my photo tips website.